Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-02
MANY MILES OF FLAME.
A Picture os PandsmCuinm ;n the Com
stock lode Fighting a Mighty
Fire That Is Nearly 1000
Feet Under the Earth's Surface-How the
Flames are Being Subdued-A Graphic
Description of the Fight.

When the great bonanza was being
worked 100000 feet Of timber was
lowered into the deeps and set in places
monthly for probably forty months
Well, says the Salt Lake Tribune, that
mass of timber has been on fire for two
or three years past, and at last has
| become so terrible 8 feature that il must
! be subdued or that portion of the
great lode abandoned. Sometime ago il
was hoped that the fire might be arrested
by bulkheads, and SO solid walls OF
masonry were built sixteen feet in thick
ness to ward of the terrible fire. But
the walls soon became hot, and the fatal
/ gas generated by the fire found it's way
out into the open chambers OF the
mine. Something else had 20 be done,
and SO it was determined to try to
drown the fire with cerboniC acid gas.
/ The trial is now under way, and Dan De
! guile, in the Enterprise, gives descrip-
/ ton of it. 1t reads like the description
of j battle between mortals and guomes
From the intensely interesting statement
we COndense some naked facts. A furnace
! for the manufacture OF the gas is placed
in position on the 100 level of the Ophir
mine. The furnace is iron, like g steam
boiler, lined with brick, and the material
used for the manufacture of the gas is
coke and charcoal The furnace is
fed at one end and the gas is discharged
! through twelve-inch pipe ct the other.
/ The account saws: "The draft through
the furnace is very strong, and when the
! doors are open the flames within roar
! like blast furnace. Cast iron, or any
ordinary metal, would be melted in
moment in the great heat" The furnace
makes 40, 900 feet of CaTbOnic gas daily,
and it is estimated that fifty days will be
required to subdue the fire, as it is be-
iieved that it fills 100000 feet of the
nine. The pipe IS at white heat when
the ges leaves the furnace. This is car
ried down into tank or tlume eighty feet
in length, ever which ten inches of water
flows constantly and COOls it, "Tnen the
pipe enters the main incline, still lying in
the tFough, and goes down seventy feet
to the 1850 level. The water dsshes down
through this trough, and over and around
the pipe, with the noise Of 8 small Mia
cara" On that level the pipe enters the
bulkhead. which at that point is twenty
four feet in thickness. The pipe is tamped
in with clay, which is kept constantly wet.
The account says:
A tremendous draft inside the buIkhead,
sucks in the carbonic acid gas brought
there through the pipe. When the bulk.
head was cut through for the purpose of
inserting the end OF the pipe, ell were
astOuished at the draft that was disclosed.
Ii was SO great that the WOTkmen were
obliged 60 be on their guard against be-
ing sucked in and carried into the region
of interior fire. This may appear TO be an
eXaggeTatiOn, but an thermometer placed in
the current of air showed it 10 have Z
velocity of 500 miles an hour. On the
surface OF the earth eighty miles an hour
is thought TO be fearful gale, but here
is gale CT 500 miles This brings into
ones mind at once thoughts Of the ire
mendous gaseous disturbances to which
the surface Of the sun is subject.
OF course this draft was not long left
open, the thrush of atmospheric sir COM
biDiDg with The carbOnic oxide within,
being liable to form an explosive com
pound. The pipe was in readiness, with
its lower end closed, and it was at once
thrust into the opening and the work If
filing in around it begun.
As the gas passes in behind The bulk
head it settles down into the lowest part
Of the inclosed space, being heavier tna7
the Carb0nic-oXide gas within, end alsei
heavier than atmospheric air. 1t wifgo
down to the l 800 level. There 1t wiltbe
stopped of and prevented sinking further
by water Thus all the fnclosed space
in which are the smoldering timbers will
be filed Up with CarbOnic acid gas, which
will displaCe the carbOnic oxide gas, Just
as water poured into g bottle dlsDlaCes
the air.
When all the burning section has been
thus filed up the fact will be known by
csrboRic acid gas flowing ont through
the pipe on the 1900 level through which
the gas from the fire is now escaping into
the old Consolidated Virginia shaft.
It may be stated that after the inclosed
section shall have been filled to overflow
ing with the caTbonic acid gas it will
be allowed to so remain a month or
two before any Of the bulkheads are
opened. The opening will be very
cautiously done, and only after Csrbonic
acid gas has taken the place of the car
bonic oxide gas at the escape pipe. This
may be known by several tests. A verv
simple one is to introduce the gas into
lime water, when 8 preCipi5ate Will at
once be formed Of the contained lime.
The rock in the mine Will Ietsin heat e
long time, but This may be overcome by
the use Of water thrown on through c
hose, once the fire is out and tas gas
gone.
The glowing furnace st the 17G0 level OF |
the Ophir, where the Gss IS made, pre-
sents z noYel and striking sceue-a ecene |
almost startling to an old ComstocEer I
coming suddenly upon it from s dimly |
lighted drift. 1t sends rare glare all |
about the station, such IS ore sees in q !
big foundry where small rivers Of molten |
iron ore flowing about. The msn, too, !
look in the red glare like beings belong
ing LITTLE lower down in the subterra-
mean regions where old satan is firing up. |
1t was yesterday compared with The !
furnaces lin the hold OF a |
big ocean steamer, but here |
the fire IS much fercer. The coke and |
charcoal under the strong-fesrfully |
brings allinside the furnace !
to white neat. The hest end glare are |
so intense that one feels all !
the time as though there were /
danger Of something giving wsy /
or blowing up. Then, besides the .
rear If the tUrnEce, there is the roar Of /
the falling water in the incline, the rattle |
Ct csges and the clank Of the machinery. !
All these sights and sounds taken to- i
gether constitute q small pandemoAm |
which it is worth while to eXperience,S